


Some (Belated) HALLOWEEN CONTENT, or: Sibling WAR

by reisling



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Alfred Pennyworth - Cameo, Fluff, Fluff with Conflict, Gen, No beta we die like mne, Sibling Rivalry, Slice of Life, Titus the Dog (DCU) - Minor Character, halloweencontentwar2k18
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-08-16 19:12:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16501100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reisling/pseuds/reisling
Summary: A little look into the lives of assorted members of the Wayne household, on an autumn eve just before Halloween.Told in a series of connecteddrabblesficlets.





	Some (Belated) HALLOWEEN CONTENT, or: Sibling WAR

**Author's Note:**

> After doing [Inktober](https://rhinefall.tumblr.com/tagged/inktober2018/chrono), I needed to take a break in terms of making fanart. And since I was stuck on a bus on an Autobahn and had a Need to bleed off some creative energy, I decided to try my hand at Words instead. I haven’t bothered with any creative writing in the last ten years ~~unless you count the little writing/storytelling exercises in Chinese that I don’t even remember for the most part~~ , so here goes nothing!
> 
> ~~What is English even? British English looks more Right to me, but this is set in the US. Oh well, I’ll go with BE anyway just because. And then I can edit the more American POVs to AE.~~
> 
> ~~And I only just got used to the keyboard on my phone being set to the English design by default (and consequently the Bluetooth keyboard automatically switching over to English despite technically being German) and now I’m on my laptop with a German keyboard again. I don’t want to set the laptop keyboard to English because then I won’t be able to find any symbols… Argh!~~
> 
> This story serves as a frame for the three doodles that I did for the [Halloween Content War](https://batfamcontentwar.tumblr.com/#), which can be viewed without the text [here](https://rhinefall.tumblr.com/tagged/halloweencontentwar2k18/chrono).

It was a cool fall evening. All was calm and well in stately Wayne Manor in Bristol, just outside of Gotham.

The time was 5pm, and the sun had already set.

Jason was rummaging through the pantry in the dark; for why else would anyone who had already moved out return to their sort of estranged parent’s place, but to grab some groceries (and maybe to offload some chores)?

It was the height of fall, which meant it was time to get _festive_ and celebrate the season with some pumpkin pie, or some pumpkin muffins, or some pumpkin soup, or some pumpkin hash, or some pumpkin jelly; and some roasted pumpkin seeds as a snack. Getting hold of some good pumpkins proved to be a challenge at his regular inner city grocers though, so he decided to check at the manor.

And behold!

A perfectly sized, perfectly smooth, perfectly rounded, and perfectly orange, all-around perfect gourd!

After grabbing the pumpkin, Jason made his way downstairs to put his Red Hood gear on again and got ready to leave the manor through a tunnel from the BatCave.

(Due to the high profile of the Waynes and his own dubiously legally alive status, he usually accesses the manor through the cave in order to avoid public attention.

(Alfred’s No-Vigilantism-Gear-Above-the-Ground-Rule however meant that he’d have to put off his Hood and armor before going upstairs.)

It was getting close to dinnertime, when the other members of the family would come in from the various entry points; to gather together before embarking on patrol. Hopefully, they would not notice that he had been here, for he had no interest in interacting with any of them (apart from maybe Alfie). Or to have to socialize later on, and explain why he had been here in the first place.

All geared up, he took the pumpkin and ran over to his bike.

[ ](https://rhinefall.tumblr.com/post/179570611694/halloweencontentwar2k18-day-1-festive)

Quickly, he secured the pumpkin to the back, and sped off into the night, all ready to get _festive_.

* * *

The weather was getting colder.

The cold was bittersweet to her.

It reminded her of the Time-on-the-Streets: the sweet joy of claiming her freedom, of claiming her own personhood, and the bitter loneliness of being just another street kid, of being invisible.

Nowadays, Cass had a Home where she could get _cozy_ with all her Precious People. If the Precious People happened to be unavailable though, there were still all the Pets that she could cuddle with.

Thus decided, she got close to Alfred-the-Cat to share some space with.

Alfred-the-Cat, being a Curious Entity, was on a tour to explore Wayne Manor.

Cass dutifully followed.

Whenever Alfred-the-Cat decided to take a break, she would carefully pick him up to help him go a bit further.

[ ](https://rhinefall.tumblr.com/post/179602582144/halloweencontentwar2k18-day-2-cozy-3c)

At some point, they wandered into the Room-with-the-Grandfather-Clock. The one where Batman would sometimes do paperwork in.

The entrance to the BatCave was open.

Being a Curious Entity herself, she went downstairs to check things over.

Most of the lights were off in order to save energy when the BatCave was not in use. Carefully walking around the BatCave, she found Red Hood’s gear.

This reminded her that she was still rather annoyed at Little-Brother-Jason.

A direct confrontation, while preferable, was Not An Option. When everyone else inevitably found out in this Family of Detectives, they would try to get involved and add their own opinions, and in doing so dilute her Points. So being a nuisance right back it was.

Having a visible mouth on the Helmet reminded Little-Brother-Jason of the time he got possessed, so he destroyed all his Helmets featuring one. High time to add a Mouth to another Helmet, like one of the Mouths she saw on all those Decorative Foods showing up everywhere this past week.

Grabbing a pen, she did just that.

After finishing her masterpiece, she carefully snuck upstairs again where it was _cozy_ and warm, and kept exploring Wayne Manor with Alfred-the-Cat.

* * *

It was time.

~~American culture~~ Grayson ~~dictated~~ asked that he participate in this _spooky_ fest called Halloween. Carving your own pumpkin was a central part of it, so Damian went with Pennyworth to select the best specimen from a nearby pumpkin patch last weekend. Now there were only a few more days left before All Hallows’ Eve, few enough that the carved pumpkin would last until then.

The carving process was a craft which necessitated the presence of his trusted companions for creative tasks. Titus immediately came at his call. Alfred did not. He wasn’t worried, for Alfred sometimes preferred to have his own space. He would show up whenever he pleased.

Damian started with preparing his working space: spreading a tarp over a table and putting all the knives and saws in place next to a print-out of his motive of choice and the tools to fix and transfer it onto his pumpkin.

They went to the kitchen to retrieve a bowl for the innards, and the adjacent pantry where his pumpkin was supposed to be.

‘Supposed’ being the key word, for he could not find it anywhere in there.

Damian was not deterred by the lack of pumpkin, though. He was Robin, partner to the World’s Greatest Detective. He could figure out where his pumpkin disappeared to.

He asked Titus to assist him in finding a trail. Titus sniffed his way into Father’s study, to the grandfather clock.

This was… unexpected. Why would anyone want to bring his pumpkin into the BatCave? The place for all things connected to their vigilantism (and training), with no space for anything else?

~~Slightly uneasy~~ Determined, they made their way downstairs.

Titus led him to an open space connected to the tunnels. There were some tyre marks on the floor; they roughly went in a single track, indicating a motorbike.

Any of his ~~insufferable~~ siblings could have come in and left on a bike, so Damian went over to the BatComputer to check the security footage instead.

There weren’t any good angles to clearly see ~~the intruder~~ the culprit in, but shortly before Cass came in with Alfred. ~~So that’s where he ran off to.~~ She seemed to be looking for something? Apparently she found what she was looking for, and retrieved a pen to… defile Red Hood’s Hood? That would mean Todd was here! Did he sneak in to steal his pumpkin? How dare he?!

After sending Titus upstairs, Damian got into his Robin uniform to chase after the gourd thief Todd with blades a-shining (unknowingly painting a rather _spooky_ picture).

[ ](https://rhinefall.tumblr.com/post/179641255694/halloweencontentwar2k18-day-3-spooky-get-back)

* * *

Alfred took a break from all the chores to enjoy some tea. Soon it would be dinnertime. Hopefully, all the Young Masters would get along well enough to not start a physical fight tonight.

Afterwards, it was time to put up the _festive_ decorations for Halloween, including the pumpkin Master Damian insisted on carving unsupervised. Then he could find a _cosy_ corner of the manor to enjoy the rest of his evening in, and all would be ready for the _spooky_ season.

It was a cool autumn night. All was calm and well in stately Wayne Manor in Bristol, just outside of Gotham.

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe I should read less Naruto stuff. “Precious People.” *sigh*
> 
> If the Cass part seemed weird, it’s because I tried playing with language to express her aphasia and how she primarily thinks in concepts. (More explanations for that particular headcanon [here](https://rhinefall.tumblr.com/post/178255673869/cassandra-cain-does-not-use-labels).)
> 
> The strikethroughs in Damian’s part are to show some lingering parts of his upbringing with the League of Shadows and his attempts to unlearn some of that.
> 
> ~~I still think my writing seems way too formal and stiff.~~


End file.
